There are many SDOs that I participate in that are able to manage their 
priorities effectively without hardcoding them into a charter.  In fact, it’s 
more common than not.  In my experience, SDOs that require a re-charter every 
time they want to discuss a new topic is indeed very disruptive and high 
overhead.

 

-Tim

 

From: Public <public-boun...@cabforum.org> On Behalf Of Ryan Sleevi via Public
Sent: Tuesday, February 5, 2019 4:02 PM
To: Dean Coclin <dean.coc...@digicert.com>; CA/Browser Forum Public Discussion 
List <public@cabforum.org>
Subject: Re: [cabfpub] [EXTERNAL]Re: Draft SMIME Working Group Charter

 

While I've yet to see an SDO successfully manage that approach, as you suggest, 
one of the benefits of dealing with it at the charter level is that it helps 
make sure there is consensus that the core is done, and that it's an 
appropriate time to move forward with identity. With an approach as you've 
described, there's a risk - one which I've personally seen happen in a number 
of WGs - that some members will feel it's time to start working on the update, 
while others feel that there's still work to be done to get the core out. The 
problem is that this debate - "is it time for Y" - ends up taking energy and 
focus away. You often see this in specs that have heavy involvement in the 
first 95%, but then drag on for the last 5% as everyone starts working on the 
'new thing'.

 

A ballot to update the charter addresses that, ensures that folks views are 
heard and represented, and quantifiably measures consensus, versus "who's 
loudest". It also helps discourage splinter-groups from forming that decided 
they want to tackle topic Y, even though it's "not time yet", because that's 
what they're interested in; if it's clear their work will have no place to go, 
it's much easier to discourage that and focus on the tough problems at hand 
with issuance.

 

On Tue, Feb 5, 2019 at 3:43 PM Dean Coclin via Public <public@cabforum.org 
<mailto:public@cabforum.org> > wrote:

There’s no reason why guidelines couldn’t be produced and then other sections 
added in a subsequent release. But why exclude that from the scope? That would 
mean having to go back later and adding it, potentially disrupting the work of 
the group. The group should just agree up front (and you can put it in the 
charter) that the initial release will include X and topic Y will be covered in 
an update.

 

From: Public <public-boun...@cabforum.org <mailto:public-boun...@cabforum.org> 
> On Behalf Of Wayne Thayer via Public
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2019 4:54 PM
To: CA/Browser Forum Public Discussion List <public@cabforum.org 
<mailto:public@cabforum.org> >
Subject: Re: [cabfpub] [EXTERNAL]Re: Draft SMIME Working Group Charter

 

My intention is not to prevent CAs from issuing S/MIME certificates containing 
identity information. It's really what Ryan said and Rufus reiterated.

 

There is a tremendous amount of work to do and the core of all of it is cert 
profiles and email validation practices. I expect that it will take a few years 
to get the core work published, and the complexity of identity validation could 
easily extend that by a year or more. I am particularly concerned (could just 
be my ignorance) about all the government-issued identity certificates that are 
valid for S/MIME. Our identity validation rules will need to support those use 
cases. Given how long S/MIME standards have already waited behind governance 
reform, I prefer a narrower initial scope that produces guidelines faster.

 

On Tue, Jan 29, 2019 at 2:18 PM Buschart, Rufus <rufus.busch...@siemens.com 
<mailto:rufus.busch...@siemens.com> > wrote:

Hello!

 

I would support the approach of Ryan (if I understood his approach correctly): 
Let’s start with the absolute minimal core and this is the validation of the 
email address and the definition of acceptable practices regarding key 
generation, key distribution and key escrow. I remember some discussions from 
last fall with Wayne about this issue when the new Mozilla Root Store Policies 
were drafted and it turned out that SMIME seems to be significantly different 
to TLS since the business needs are very much different. So there will be a lot 
to do with this issues.

 

With best regards,
Rufus Buschart

Siemens AG
Information Technology
Human Resources
PKI / Trustcenter
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Hugo-Junkers-Str. 9
90411 Nuernberg, Germany 
Tel.: +49 1522 2894134
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Von: Public <public-boun...@cabforum.org <mailto:public-boun...@cabforum.org> > 
Im Auftrag von Bruce Morton via Public
Gesendet: Dienstag, 29. Januar 2019 21:50
An: Wayne Thayer <wtha...@mozilla.com <mailto:wtha...@mozilla.com> >; 
CA/Browser Forum Public Discussion List <public@cabforum.org 
<mailto:public@cabforum.org> >
Betreff: Re: [cabfpub] [EXTERNAL]Re: Draft SMIME Working Group Charter

 

Hi Wayne,

 

Can you elaborate on why we should exclude identity validation from the initial 
scope?

 

My thinking is that many CAs which are currently issuing S/MIME certificates 
are also including identity. I assume that most use similar methods that are 
defined in the BRs to validate identity. It would seem that it should be 
included in the scope to cover current practice.

 

Thanks, Bruce.

 

From: Public [mailto:public-boun...@cabforum.org] On Behalf Of Wayne Thayer via 
Public
Sent: January 25, 2019 1:37 PM
To: Ryan Sleevi <sle...@google.com <mailto:sle...@google.com> >; CA/Browser 
Forum Public Discussion List <public@cabforum.org <mailto:public@cabforum.org> >
Subject: [EXTERNAL]Re: [cabfpub] Draft SMIME Working Group Charter

 

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I agree that we should exclude identity validation from the initial scope of 
this working group.

 

On Fri, Jan 25, 2019 at 10:04 AM Ryan Sleevi via Public <public@cabforum.org 
<mailto:public@cabforum.org> > wrote:

 

Finally, regarding membership criteria, I'm curious whether it's necessary to 
consider WebTrust for CAs / ETSI at all. For work like this, would it make 
sense to merely specify the requirements for a CA as one that is trusted for 
and actively issues S/MIME certificates that are accepted by a Certificate 
Consumer. This seems to be widely inclusive and can be iterated upon if/when 
improved criteria are developed, if appropriate.

 

This would allow a CA that is not eligible for full Forum membership to join 
this WG as a full member. How would that work? Would we require such an 
organization to join the Forum as an Interested Party? If the idea is that such 
an organization wouldn't be required to join the Forum, then I don't believe 
that was anticipated or intended in the design of the current structure. It's 
not clear to me that we should permit membership in a CWG without Forum 
membership. For instance, allowing this may create loopholes in the IPR 
obligations that are defined and administered at the Forum level.

 

There's also a bootstrapping issue for membership, in that until we know who 
the accepted Certificate Consumers are, no CA can join as a Certificate Issuer. 
I'm curious whether it makes sense to explicitly bootstrap this in the charter 
or how we'd like to tackle this.

 

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